The Past Returns
by kate657
Summary: A tragic accident reunites bitter Haley Scott with the husband that walked away from her four years before.
1. Different People, Different Worlds

**1. DIFFERENT PEOPLE, DIFFERENT WORLDS**

Nathan Scott groaned as he woke up and then panicked when he realized that he was in a hospital. He turned his head and was shocked to see his brother Lucas and old friend Peyton Sawyer. "Am I hallucinating?" Nathan asked. Lucas smirked as he shook his head.

"No, Nate. Apparently you were in a car accident," he replied. Nathan remembered that. He even remembered the ambulance ride over to the hospital.

"Yeah, I remember that. I'm just wondering what you're doing here," he said. Peyton looked to Lucas.

"Dan called me and told me to come visit with you for a while," Lucas said. Nathan remembered briefly speaking to his father on the phone.

"Apparently, you need your family with you," Peyton said rather snarky. Nathan looked at her in confusion.

"Hey, Peyton, what are you doing here?" he asked.

"I'm here because Lucas is," she said. Then her face softened. "And because I wanted to make sure you were okay," Peyton added.

"I appreciate that, but why would you be here if Lucas is? Where's Brooke?" Nathan asked. Lucas and Peyton looked at each other and laughed.

"Nate, Brooke and I broke up three years ago. Peyton and I have been dating for a little over two years," Lucas said. Nathan looked at them incredulously.

"Well, it's about time," he said, smiling. They looked at him quizzically. "Come on, tortured artist meets tortured athlete. Talk about your obvious attraction and you two always had chemistry," Nathan said. They laughed. Now Nathan was confused.

"You know, its funny, but Hales said something like that," Lucas said. Nathan went rigid. He hadn't thought of her in a long time mostly because it was too painful to remember all of the things that had happened. He could still see her smiling face sometimes that he loved so much at the beginning of their marriage.

"You guys still see her?" Nathan asked.

"See her?" Peyton said, "We live with her." Nathan widened his eyes in surprise.

"Me, Peyton, Brooke, Sam, and Haley all share an apartment," Lucas explained. Nathan nodded.

"Who's Sam?" he asked.

"Sam Harris is Brooke's boyfriend," Lucas replied.

"So, how have things been for you, Nate?" Peyton asked.

"They're good, except for this, of course," he said.

"What have you been up to?" Lucas asked.

"Well, I go to California State College. I'm, uh, majoring in sports," he said.

"Still playing basketball?" Lucas asked. Nathan nodded.

"State champion last year," he replied. Lucas widened his eyes in surprise as he smiled and nodded.

"That's great," he said.

"Are you still playing?" Nathan asked.

"No," Lucas replied. Nathan looked at him.

"He gave it up because he has HCM," Peyton explained.

"I thought you refused to stop playing basketball," Nathan said, looking at him for an explanation.

"I was forced to give it up. Someone told the coach that I had HCM. I wasn't happy about it at first, but I'm glad that they did that. I'm majoring in journalism, believe it or not. The coach gave me a choice: Either I quit the team and choose another major or I get kicked off the team and kicked out of school," Lucas said.

"Who told the coach?" Nathan demanded. They looked at each other.

"Haley did," Peyton replied.

"Wow. I never would have guessed that she had it in her to betray someone like that," Nathan said. Lucas laughed.

"She didn't betray me, Nate. When we were in our senior year of high school, Haley knew that I had HCM and warned me to tell Whitey why I wasn't doing such a good job during practices. The pills that I was taking were designed to inhibit my performance so that I wouldn't have a heart attack. A while later, I decided to stop taking them. Haley had no idea and she figured that since I was doing fine in basketball, I wouldn't die. Then, during our second year in college, she saved my life," Lucas said.

"What are you talking about?" Nathan asked.

"I came very close to dying one time when I was practicing at a court off campus. If Haley hadn't been there to give me CPR, you wouldn't be talking to me right now. When that happened, she warned me to tell the coach that I had HCM before something really serious happened. I refused, so she told him," Lucas replied. Nathan nodded. "What else are you doing in college?" Lucas asked. Nathan sighed.

"I'm taking some business courses," he replied.

"That's smart. Something to fall back on," Peyton said. Nathan shook his head.

"No, something for when I retire," he corrected her.

"How long do you think you're going to be playing basketball?" Lucas asked.

"Well, after this year, I'm going pro," he replied. They both nodded.

Haley yawned as she put some charts back on the shelves. "Haley, if you don't mind, a patient of mine needs some medicine," her friend and fellow RN (registered nurse), Natalie Crane said. Haley smiled.

"Sure. I'm on for another five hours while you're off in five minutes and then going on vacation for a month. What's another patient to me?" Haley replied sarcastically.

"Thanks, you're a gem," Natalie said, laughing.

"Where's the chart?" Haley asked, looking for it.

"Oh, check in the room on the bed. Steve was using it to look over the patient when I left," Natalie replied. Haley sighed.

"You really need to teach your husband to put charts back where they belong," Haley commented.

"Hey, he is a brilliant and busy doctor, Hales. He can't always remember every little detail," Natalie said.

"He's a first-year, egotistical resident who can't be bothered to do what he considers 'a nurse's job'," Haley said. Natalie frowned and looked at her in surprise.

"Look, I know you've never liked him," she said.

"Understatement," Haley interrupted. The first time Haley had ever met Dr. Steve Crane was during her first year working at the hospital on her very first day in fact. She had disagreed with the way he talked to and treated a young female patient who had just come into the ER after being brutally raped and beat up. He talked to her like it was her fault and told her that next time she went to a party; she shouldn't dress in an outfit that basically told any guy to "come and get it".

They had gotten into a major blow-out right at the admitting desk where Haley had followed him. She almost reported him to an attending, but her friendship with Natalie, who was only dating him at the time, compelled her not to. "But we're married now and if you want our friendship to continue, you're going to need to put the past behind you," Natalie said.

"Haley!" Dr. Shane yelled from one of the trauma rooms.

"I've got to go. We'll talk about this some other time. Have a good honeymoon," Haley called as she made her way to the trauma room.

TEN MINUTES LATER

Haley yawned as she walked out of the room and went to the admitting desk to return a chart of a patient. She checked her watch and realized she still had to give Natalie's patient their medications. "Haley, can you run a tox screen on the patient in curtain five?" a random doctor asked. Haley smiled.

"I'll be there as soon as I'm done giving the meds to this patient," she said. She was wearing navy blue scrubs and put her stethoscope around her neck again and walked into the patient's room. She looked up at him and shook her head in disbelief and recognition.

"You've got to be kidding me," she said abrasively.


	2. Always & Forever No More

**Always & Forever No More **(Chapter 2)

Nathan stared at Haley in disbelief. She was dressed in scrubs, she had a stethoscope around her neck and now she was holding a chart. She took one look at him and rolled her eyes. She started to look at the chart. Then, she walked over to one side of the bed and pulled out a syringe and a bottle. She put the needle through the top of the bottle and pulled the syringe up to reveal a colourless liquid filling in the tube. He looked at her nervously as he asked, "What is that, cyanide?" Lucas and Peyton cracked a smile at his joke. Haley glared at him and then she chuckled.

"Not a bad idea, but no. Maybe next time. This is morphine; it's for your pain," Haley retorted. Her tone was sharp and satirical, but at least she still had her sense of humour. She took the chart and checked a few boxes as she added another clear liquid into his IV.

"What's that?" Peyton asked.

"It's an antibiotic," Haley replied, as she took a new tube and hooked it up to the plastic fluid bag.

"Well, we should be going," Peyton said, looking at her watch.

"I've got a class in the morning and so does she. We'll be by later tomorrow. Ok?" Lucas said. Nathan nodded. Lucas walked over to Haley and put a hand on her shoulder. She stopped what she was doing and looked at him. "When are you off?" Lucas asked. Haley smiled at him.

"I'm off in five hours," Haley replied.

"Do you need me to come and pick you up?" Lucas asked. Haley shook her head.

"The hospital pays for a cab to take me home," she reminded him. Lucas nodded. When Peyton and Lucas left, Haley came over to Nathan and looked at his chart.

"How am I doing?" he asked tiredly. Haley continued using a pen and never looked up at him.

"I'm not a doctor," she replied flatly.

"Lucas tells me you're attending Raleigh University," he said. Haley looked up at him. That had come out of nowhere. He was just trying to get some sort of reaction out of her to see if she would even look at him. She smirked to herself.

"Part-time," she said.

"Why? And when did you decide to become a nurse?" he asked. Haley laughed. She put the chart under her arm and looked at him.

"Can we not do this?" she asked.

"Do what?" he asked, looking at her in confusion.

"Have the conversation where we tell each other what we've been up to," she replied. He looked at her in confusion. Haley stepped away from his bed and walk towards the door. "We're not friends, Nathan. We don't need to catch up. I'm your nurse. I handle your medications and other things related to why you're here. That's all I need to know," she said before walking out the door. Nathan smirked.

He got it; she was hurt. He didn't blame her. He knew that he had hurt her and she certainly had every right to be angry and go off on him. He was actually amazed that she didn't. He had gone to sleep one night on the couch of their off-campus apartment. She had left early to catch a morning class and he had chosen that time to pack all of his things and left without even leaving a note. The last time he'd seen her was when they had met in a judge's office to sign divorce papers. He shook his head at the memory. She had not been so poised and she had not suppressed her hurt or anger so well then. 

(FLASHBACK)

Nathan was dressed in a simple grey suit with no tie as he sat down and waited for Haley. "Are you sure your wife knows that she's supposed to be here?" the judge asked. Nathan nodded. "Well, we'll wait three more minutes for her," he said. Nathan smiled appreciatively.

A few seconds later the door opened and Haley walked into the room. She didn't look at him. She sat down in a chair that was placed beside him. She moved it over a few spaces so that she was away from him. "Okay. Thank you for coming, Mrs. Scott," the judge said. Haley didn't say a word. She gave the judge no sign of acknowledgement at all.

"Okay, now, Mr. Scott, I think it's pretty clear that you're the one who filed for this divorce," the judge said. Nathan nodded. "Do you mind telling me why?" the judge asked. Nathan took a deep breath. He looked over at Haley. She was still sitting still as if she were in a trance.

"Things fell apart in our third year of marriage. College has changed us both so dramatically that we're not the same people we were when we first got married. We barely spoke and when we did, we were arguing. Loudly. I think we're too different to stay married. We're separated right now so we don't live together anymore. I live in California now, while Haley still lives here in North Carolina," he said.

"Have you been separated for a year?" the judge asked. Nathan nodded.

"More than a year. We've been separated for about sixteen months," Nathan replied. The judge nodded.

"Ok, then all you need to do is sign here," the judge said showing them the spots where they needed to sign. Nathan took the pen and signed his name carefully so that people could read it under husband. Then, Haley took the pen in her shaking hands and signed Haley Scott under wife. She kept her face turned away as the judge told them that they were no longer married under North Carolina law and that they could leave.

Haley slowly lifted herself up from the chair and walked to the door. She opened it and left the room. Nathan sighed. He needed to talk to her about this. He got up and nodded to the judge. He left the room and looked for Haley. She was sitting on the bench outside the door. She was shaking and it didn't take Nathan long to realize that she was crying. He sighed. He still loved her and he hated to see her cry. He started to sit down but she finally spoke. "Don't," she choked out. He ignored her and sat down. She calmed down and wiped her face. She was still shaking, though.

"Haley," he started. She shook her head.

"Don't you dare," she said.

"What?" he asked.

"Don't try to calm me down after you're the one who put me through this," she said.

"Haley, I didn't do this to hurt you," he said. Haley laughed bitterly.

"Well, that worked out well, didn't it?" she asked. He looked down.

"Haley, you know as well as I do that our marriage wasn't working," he said. Haley looked at him in disbelief.

"And whose fault is that?" she retorted. He looked down. He knew she thought he was the one who had changed and he had. "You were so caught up in being the big man on campus that you hardly ever came home. I'm surprised you still remember my name," Haley said. He looked at her in annoyance.

"You changed too," he reminded her. Haley looked at him.

"Yeah, I did change. It's called 'growing up'. But at least I still made an effort. You just disappeared one morning and I never heard from you again," she said.

"I was trying to make a clean break," he said defensively.

"You're a coward," Haley said. He looked at her in confusion. "You broke up with me- through your father!" Haley exclaimed, but she was nowhere near finished.

"Do you have any idea what went through my mind when I came home and found you gone? I thought something had happened to you. For the first five minutes, I was in complete terror as all kinds of scenarios raced through my mind. Then I noticed all of your stuff was gone. Then, your father called me and told me that you and I were now separated," she said. She was smirking at him sarcastically.

"Your father is quite the character. Do you know that he came to my apartment and personally handed me the divorce papers?" she asked.

"I'm sorry," he said.

"Don't bother apologizing to me now, Nathan. It's a little late," she snapped. He put his hands up in surrender. He got up and started to walk away. "Always and forever, huh?" she called to him.

He froze and stayed that way for a few seconds. He turned around to see that Haley was standing too. Her face was stained with tears and her delicate features were washed with pain. "I guess forever isn't as long as I thought it was," she said shakily. Then, she turned around and left.

(END OF FLASHBACK)

Nathan shook his head at the memory. It still hurt him to remember how she had thrown his vow back in his face. The contempt in her tone alone had rocked him to his core.

Haley walked away from Nathan's room and to the patient in curtain five who she had to run a tox screen on. She quickly took the blood and then noticed a little boy who was crying. Haley walked over and kneeled down so she was face-to-face with him. "What's wrong, Mathew?" Haley asked.

"Nurse Scott, my stomach is still bothering me," he said. Haley nodded.

"Did you tell your doctor?" she asked softly. He nodded.

"And what did he do?" Haley asked. Mathew looked up at her.

"He told me that I probably ate too much," he said.

"Did he check your stomach?" Haley asked. Mathew shook his head. Haley took his chart that was hanging on the side of his bed. She read it over and as soon as she saw that Steve Crane was the doctor who had looked at him, she sighed and shook her head in annoyance. "I'll go get a doctor for you," she said. She walked to the admitting desk and put the blood she had taken from one patient in the basket that needed to go to the lab. Another nurse came and took it.

"Thanks, Sharon," she said. Sharon nodded.

"I swear, when Dr. Crane gets back, he's going to get an earful," Haley said. She started to explain about the little kid.

"If he doesn't smarten up and actually do what he's supposed to when he comes back, I'm inclined to make life a living hell for him," Haley said. It was a well-known fact that the nurses kept the ER going smoothly. They could make a doctor's life so easy or they could make it very difficult. Another nurse, Marie, smirked at her.

"It's about time he learned the cardinal rule," Marie said. Haley laughed.

"What's the cardinal rule?" a med student asked.

"Don't piss off the nurses," Haley replied. The student nodded and smiled. Then she looked around and noticed that Noah Shane was walking towards them.

"Did you run that tox screen?" he asked Haley.

"Already on its way to the lab," Haley replied.

"You're a godsend," he said. Haley smiled appreciatively. She and Noah had always gotten along pretty well. She was one of the few nurses who actually cut him a break when he first started working as the newest third-year resident.

"Can you do me a favour?" she asked. He looked at her.

"Sure. As long as it doesn't take too long. I've got a date in an hour and I hope to actually make it there," he said. Haley laughed.

"It shouldn't take that long. Can you take a look at the kid in curtain five? His name is Mathew and he's complaining about a sore stomach," Haley said.

"Whose patient is he?" he asked. Haley narrowed her eyes at him for a second. Then she smiled.

"Who do you think?" Haley asked. Noah laughed. He knew now that Steve was Mathew's original doctor. He nodded.

"Thanks," she replied as he walked towards Mathew. Then, another nurse, Tina Maine, walked in.

"Did you guys get a look at that MVA in two?" she asked. She made a face and whistled. "He definitely makes my day so much brighter. He's cute and to top it off, he always says hello to me when I walk in to look at the other patients," Tina said. The other nurses nodded in agreement.

"Hey, his last name is Scott too," Marie said, as she looked at one of the dozens of charts.

"Same last name. Any relation?" Tina said. Haley smirked as she rolled her eyes.

"Yeah," Haley said.

"Cousin?" Marie asked.

"No, ex-husband," she replied. They looked at her in shock.

"You were married?" Tina asked in shock. Haley nodded.

"For how long?" Marie asked. Haley stopped to think for a minute.

"Two and a half years, but we were together for three years," she replied. They started to ask her something else, but she glared at them. She hoped that made it clear that she didn't want to talk about it anymore. They all nodded.


	3. Leaving Normal

**Leaving Normal** (Chapter 3)

THE NEXT DAY

"Nathan, sweetie, wake up," Deb Scott said to her son. Nathan yawned and opened his eyes slowly. She smiled at him.

"Mom?" he asked. Deb nodded.

"I'm here too, Nate," Dan Scott said. Nathan slowly moved his head, ignoring the pain, and saw his father on the other side of his bed. He slowly moved his good arm and rubbed his forehead.

"What time is it?" he asked.

"It's about eight at night," Deb replied softly.

"How are you feeling?" Dan asked. Nathan stopped for a minute. That was kind of a stupid question to ask someone who had just been in a serious car accident. The fact that he had to stop and think about the answer should tell them a little about how he was feeling. His head was pounding. The pain was the equivalent as if someone had used his head as a basketball. They had dribbled it a few times, then dunked it and then he winced as he thought about how it would feel if his head had actually hit the floor after being dunked. He was about to answer, but then everything went black.

Haley walked to where Mathew was to give him some medicine. "Nurse, come quick!" a man exclaimed. Haley put the needles down on the counter out of Mathew's reach and ran to the room. She looked around and was shocked when she realized it was Nathan's room. He was unconscious and monitors were going off.

"What are you doing here?" Dan demanded. Haley ignored him and walked over to Nathan's bedside. She looked at him. She pushed the panic button on Nathan's bed and opened Nathan's eyes. They were unresponsive to the light.

"Haley, is he ok?" Deb asked. Haley was about to answer when Dr. Shane and two other nurses came running in.

"What happened?" he asked. Dan took this time to speak.

"He just woke up. He started talking to us. He asked what time it was, I asked him how he was feeling and then he was unconscious," Dan said, rambling a bunch of things that didn't really matter. Dr. Shane started to examine him. Then, the heart monitor started a long, sustaining beep. Haley looked up and gasped.

"He's flat-lined," she said.

"BP's dropping. 50 over 10," Haley said, looking at the monitor. The other nurses came with the crash cart and paddles.

"Charge to 280," Dr. Shane said.

"Charging," a nurse said.

"What are you doing to my son?" Deb demanded. They shocked Nathan twice.

"Haley, get them out of here," Dr. Shane said. Haley shook her head.

"Deb, Dan, you're going to have to wait outside," Haley said. Deb and Dan remained firm.

"We're not going anywhere," Dan said.

"Charge to 300," Dr. Shane commanded. "Clear," Dr. Shane said. Haley looked at the monitor and sighed with relief as it returned to a normal heart pattern.

"Pulse is back and climbing," Haley said. Everyone breathed out hard and Dr. Shane took off the yellow cover.

"Okay. Push five milligrams of epinephrine and keep an eye on him," Dr. Shane said. Him and the other two nurses left. Haley walked over to the cabinet and grabbed a syringe and epinephrine. She poked a hole through the lid and drew five milligrams. She walked over to Nathan and removed his IV from the liquid bag. She pushed the epinephrine into the tube that was connected to his arm. Then, she removed the old tubing and hooked new tubing up to the bag. Haley looked at Deb and Dan sympathetically. Dan looked a little confused and Deb looked worried and extremely upset. She walked over to them. Deb looked at her pleadingly.

"Is Nathan going to be ok?" Deb asked. Haley hesitated.

"I'm just a nurse, not a doctor," Haley said. Deb looked at her.

"But you must have experience with this type of thing, Haley. You've obviously been working here for a while," Dan said.

"Three years," Haley said. Deb looked at her. "A lot of things can happen from a car accident. This could be a reaction to medicine or something else," Haley said. She grabbed the chart from the bed and looked at it.

"Dr. Shane has scheduled a CT Scan and X-rays for later tonight to find out what's going on," Haley said.

"I think I want a doctor who's a little older and has more experience to oversee my son," Dan said firmly. Haley shook her head.

"He is one of the best doctors here," Haley said. Dan scoffed.

"That's like a company line," Dan said. Haley shook her head.

"If I were in a car accident, he's the doctor that I'd want to work on me. He has an extensive background in surgery and he's been working in the ER for six years. He knows what he's doing," Haley assured him.

AN HOUR LATER

Haley walked into Nathan's room and smiled when she saw Marie putting the bed back. "Did you just take him up for X-rays?" Haley asked. Marie nodded.

"And the CT," she replied.

"How did it go?" Haley asked. Marie smiled. That meant that the results aren't back yet. "Um, Dr. Raiser wants you in exam one," Haley said. Marie looked back at what she was doing.

"I'll handle this," Haley promised. Marie smiled. She started to walk towards the door.

"I'm sure he's going to be fine, Haley," Marie said, gesturing to Nathan. Haley smiled.

"Thanks," she said. Marie nodded. Haley walked over to Nathan and noticed that the chart was on the floor. She sighed. She picked it up and noticed that blood tests were being ordered. Marie obviously hadn't gotten around to getting the blood yet. She started getting the vials ready to get the blood, but a voice stopped her.

"Haley?" Nathan asked weakly. She walked over to him and smiled.

"Yeah, it's me," she said.

"What's going on? What happened? What are you doing here?" he asked.

"You went into a-fib," Haley said. He looked at her in confusion.

"What does that mean?" he asked. Haley smirked.

"Atrial fibrillation," she replied. He looked at her. "I don't know everything, but, basically, the heart beats in a pretty normal pattern. A change in this pattern is known as an arrhythmia. The most common type is atrial fibrillation. What happens is that the atria vibrate rather than contract normally because of irregular electrical signals in the heart. The result is an abnormally fast heartbeat as the chaotic signals travel to the ventricles, which are the heart's main pumping chambers," Haley explained.

"So, my heart stopped beating?" he asked. Haley shook her head.

"No, it was beating too fast," she replied.

"And I had to be shocked back?" he asked. Haley nodded. "Is this because of the car accident?" he asked. Haley shrugged.

"That's why we're running all these tests. By the way, I need some of your blood," Haley said. He looked up at her warningly.

"No needles," he said. Haley laughed. Nathan had always hated needles.

"How do you expect me to get the blood, with my fingers?" Haley asked, smirking. Nathan realized what she meant and smiled.

"I don't like needles," he reminded her.

"Oh, don't be such a baby. It won't hurt a bit, I promise," she said. She brought the needle up to his arm and searched for a vein. She squeezed his skin to make the vein come to the surface. Then she looked at him.

"So, what team are you playing for these days?" she asked.

"California State's team," he replied. Haley nodded.

"How many points did you score in the last game?" she asked.

"21 points, 8 assists," he replied almost as if it were a mechanic jerk.

"Still kicking butt, I see," she said. Then she pulled the needle out.

"I hold my own," he said. Haley smirked at his modesty.

"All done," she said. He looked at her and noticed the three vials of blood.

"How…" he asked, but stopped.

"You're not the only person who hates needles. I find that if you talk to a person about something that interests them, they're not concentrating on the needle," Haley said.

"Something you picked up in nursing school?" he asked. Haley smiled.

"No. Experience," she replied.

"By the way, I'm glad you're still playing basketball," she said.

"You are?" he asked doubtfully.

"Yeah. I know how much it means to you. You deserve to be happy," she said. His face grew serious.

"You didn't seem to care when you first saw me here or the last time we spoke," he said. Haley sighed.

"Nathan, I wanted to apologize for that," she said.

"Which?" he asked.

"Both. At the divorce signing, I said a lot of things that I didn't mean and the last thing I said was horrible. And what I said earlier about not caring about what was going on in your life isn't true," she said. He grabbed her hand to stop her from talking.

"Don't apologize to me, Hales. It's ok and I understand," he said. She looked up at him in disbelief. He was smiling at her.

"Thanks for taking such good care of me while I'm here," he said. She smirked. "And thanks for worrying about me," he added. Haley looked at him.

"You were awake then?" she asked, referring to her brief conversation with Marie. He nodded.

"I wonder if that doctor actually wanted to see her," he said. Haley smiled as she shrugged.

"Well, this is an ER. She probably ran into someone who needed her on her way to the room. She'll forget all about it," Haley said.

"Just wanted to get me alone," he said, smiling and laughing. Haley's eyes widened in surprise. She was about to untie the elastic that she had put around his arm to make it so she could collect blood. Instead, she put her finger in between his skin and the elastic, pulled it away from his body and then let it snap against his arm. "Ow!" he said.

"That's what you get for being arrogant," she said, laughing. She untied the elastic and threw it in the garbage.

"I think I want a new nurse," he said. Haley laughed.

"Sorry, but there's a nurse shortage as it is. You're stuck with me," she said smiling.


	4. When the Truth Hurts

**When the Truth Hurts **(Chapter 4)

FOUR DAYS LATER

Haley woke up and looked around her room in the three-bedroom apartment that she shared with Peyton, Lucas, Brooke and Sam. She looked at her clock and groaned when she realized that it was six in the afternoon. When Haley had first started working at Raleigh University Hospital, she had chosen the morning shift. She had quickly grown to hate it. It wasn't that there were more patients during the day or that when people were waiting in the waiting room, they seemed to get very impatient because since it was still day time, they obviously had more important things to do than wait six hours in the ER to see a doctor. She realized that she just preferred working the night to early morning shift. Lucas, Brooke and Peyton all thought she was crazy for working nights instead of going out to clubs with them. The fact that she didn't have to go out with them was just an added bonus of working the night shift. She loved all of them, but whenever they went out, Lucas and Peyton had each other, and Brooke had Sam.

Haley always felt like a fifth wheel and she had grown tired of it. So she got up every week day at around five or six in the afternoon and got dressed in her nursing scrubs and would either call a cab or Lucas to drive her to work. Sometimes she even walked and it was about a forty-minute walk to the hospital from their apartment, but she enjoyed walking. She never walked on her way home though. In the morning, it was always coldest in the morning so she took a cab home. She had a shower, got dressed and ready and about twenty minutes later; she walked into the living room and noticed that the answering machine light was flashing. She walked over to it and pressed the button.

There was a beep and then an electronic voice that said: "You have one new message." She walked into the kitchen and grabbed a Coke from the fridge and then came back just as another beep and the message started to play.

"Hey, Hales. It's about six thirty right now and we're all at the hospital visiting Nathan. Maybe we'll see you there. By the way, there's rice in the cabinet for you since we know you like to make some and bring it to work to eat on your break. I finally had a taste of the hospital's cafeteria food and you're right: It's absolutely disgusting," Peyton was saying. Haley smirked to herself. She made a mental note to thank them for getting rice and put a pot on the stove with water and rice. She set it to cook and ten minutes later, it was ready to be drained and put into a container. She could always get a fork and Soya sauce from the cafeteria. She threw on a jacket and walked out the door.

An hour later, Haley walked into the hospital. Marie smiled at her. "Wow! You're earlier than usual," she said. Haley shrugged.

"Funny, considering I walked here," Haley said, laughing as she went to the room for the staff to put their jackets and other things away in their lockers. She walked back out and threw her stethoscope around her neck. She went to the waiting area and looked at the chart in her hand and said, "Olivia Wallace?"

A skinny, brown-haired woman stood up and walked over to her. She had a baby with her. The baby was crying uncontrollably and it its face was red. "Hi, I'm not here for an appointment for myself. It's for my son," she said, looking down at her son. Haley smiled. When she was a student doing field work, she had been assigned to the NICU. She was no stranger to babies. She came over and tried to take the baby.

"What are you doing?" she asked, stepping back and tightening her grasp around her son protectively.

"I'm going to take your son to the examination room," Haley said simply.

"Well, I'll follow you," she said.

"The doctor needs to be able to examine your son," Haley said carefully. The woman scoffed.

"Why you do you think I'm here, Miss? I just want to come while the doctor examines my baby," she said.

"I know and I understand that, but like I said, the doctor needs to be able to examine your son and he won't be able to do that with you hovering over him," Haley said.

"I'm his mother! I have a right to be there," Olivia exclaimed. Haley looked around at the other patients who were now glaring at her. She could practically hear some of their thoughts. They obviously thought she was being very insensitive. Haley didn't want to get into a big argument at the start of her shift.

"Of course you're coming! I just meant that the baby needs to be put onto the bed and probably might need an IV and it just makes my job easier if I'm holding him. I meant no disrespect. If you want to hold him, then all right," Haley said, as she led the way. "What's open?" Haley asked.

"Curtain Two," the admitting clerk replied. Haley smiled appreciatively and led the way to curtain two. She walked by the curtain drawn around Nathan's bed. She could hear Lucas, Brooke, Peyton and Sam all chattering with him. She walked to the bed that was beside his and pulled his curtain open. They all looked at her in shock.

"Sorry, just need a few things," she said as she walked over to the shelves and cupboards. She grabbed IV tubes and various bottles of medications. She grabbed a new thermometer as well. She put the new ear piece onto the part. It was the same thing she did with every patient- grabbed a new ear piece for the thermometer because it was a rule and just plain gross to stick the same ear piece into other people's ears. The woman gently put her baby down and walked over to Nathan's bedside because there was no room to get to where Haley was.

"Nurse, where is the doctor?" she asked.

"She'll be here in a few minutes, Ma'am. In the meantime, I'm just going to take your baby's temperature and blood pressure, etc," Haley replied.

"Blood pressure? You think something's wrong with my son?" she asked. Haley turned around and shrugged.

"It's just a precaution. We do it with every patient," she replied.

"Then, I think I want a doctor to do it," Olivia said. Nathan saw Haley tense up.

"I understand that, but it isn't a doctor's job," Haley said. Haley walked past her and back to the screaming baby that was left in an incubator-like bed that you see babies in on shows where parents are looking in at their new-born babies. Haley gently lifted the baby's arm and wrapped the Velcro around his small arm. "It's ok. I know; it's annoying," she said soothingly to the baby. She looked at the machine that told the baby's blood pressure. She gave absolutely no indication as to whether it was good or bad, which surprised Nathan.

Haley had always been so open with her feelings. It was almost as if she didn't realize that everything she was feeling was written on her face. Either she had been trained to hide her emotions when dealing with patients or she had hardened herself. She wrote something down on the chart and held it under her arm. She took the thermometer and put it in the baby's ear. The baby let out a loud wale when the cold part of the thermometer went into its ear. "Sorry, but I need to do this in order to find out what's wrong," Haley said in the same soothing tone. She took the thermometer out of the baby's ear and held it up to her face. Again, there was no reaction. She just wrote something down and then put the chart back under her arm.

She told the mother that the doctor would be there in a few minutes to examine her son and that she would be checking on other patients in the area. "If you need anything, just yell for me," Haley said.

"What's your name?" the woman asked.

"Nurse Scott," Haley replied and left.

"Thank you," the woman called after her.

"You're welcome," Haley said as she headed towards Nathan. She walked to his bed side and checked the monitor. He studied her face. Haley showed no emotion while she was reading the monitor, but when she looked back to him, she smiled.

"Your vitals are up," she said.

"That's good news, right?" Peyton asked worriedly. Nathan smiled at Peyton. He knew she was going through hell right now to be back here since her mother had died in a car accident when she was younger, so it was probably hard for her to be here when a friend was in a car accident and Nathan valued how much of a friend she still was to him.

"Yeah, it is," Haley said, smiling. "How are you feeling?" she asked him.

"I feel fine. I'm ready to bust out of here," he said. Haley laughed.

"That's not up to me. It's up to your doctor. Has he been by to see you?" Haley asked. Nathan nodded.

"He said that they needed to run more tests and that they're going to keep me here a little longer," he replied. Haley nodded. She made a face of confusion but it quickly disappeared. That bothered him. She had been so reserved for the woman and when she was reading his monitor, but this information had made her lose her composure for a second. "Is something wrong?" he asked, looking at her. Haley smiled.

"No," she said quickly. Too quickly. He would've asked her what was wrong, but she left quickly and the others were around.

Haley rushed to the front desk. "Where's Dr. Shane?" she asked.

"I'm over here, Haley," he said from the other side of the hall.

"I need to talk to you," she said. He nodded and led her to the staff room which was vacant. "It's about a patient," she said. He nodded.

"Shoot," he said.

"The MVA in two- you ordered more tests for him. Why?" she asked.

"I'm a doctor, Haley, and he's my patient. It's not unheard of for a doctor to order tests for one of his patients, is it?" he asked, laughing in amusement.

"He seems like he should be going home, not getting more tests," Haley said. He hesitated for a minute and right away, Haley knew what that meant.

"He has an underlying condition, Haley," he said.

"That was caused by the accident?" she asked. He nodded.

"His liver is failing," he said.

"He needs a transplant, doesn't he?" Haley asked. Dr. Shane nodded.

"And there's not one in the donor bin. I checked," he said.

"Well, a family member could donate their liver," she said.

"It may not help. He's got an infection, so it's very likely that his body would reject the transplant if he has one," Dr. Shane said.

"Have you told him?" Haley asked.

"No. I'm not going to tell him until the results of the latest tests come back. I want to be sure. I think you want me to be too," he said. Haley looked at him in confusion.

"Haley, I'm not blind or deaf. I heard from one of the other nurses that you used to be married to him," he said. Haley rolled her eyes. "Do you want to be there when I tell him?" he asked. Haley shook her head. She had decided to bury the hatchet and be nice to Nathan while he was in the hospital. She couldn't deny that she didn't love him anymore because she did. That was obvious to anyone. But the fact that she still cared about him and the fact that she and he were sort of friends now while he was there didn't change their past. It didn't erase all of the pain he had put her through when he left her and threw away their marriage. Haley made a decision right then and there. She would remember exactly who she was to Nathan and who she wasn't. She was his nurse. She was not his wife anymore.

"I think it might be good for him to hear the news from someone he knows. Or at least have a familiar face around when he hears the news," Dr. Shane said. Haley laughed.

"He has his parents, his brother, plus three old friends from high school to be there for him," Haley said.

"But none of those people are his wife," he said.

"Neither am I," she reminded him.

"You're a hard one to figure out, you know that? One minute you're acting all concerned about your ex-husband and the next minute, you're acting like you hate him," he said. Haley laughed.

"I don't hate him. Look, you don't know the whole story. You don't know what happened back then, so, just drop it. Don't try to understand because you can't," Haley said. Noah shrugged.

"Hey, I'm just looking out for my patient's best interests," he said. Haley glared at him. He laughed and put his hands up in surrender. "I get the message," he said. Haley nodded.

A DAY LATER

Nathan sighed as he looked around. "Nate, are you all right?" Brooke asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he said. Brooke looked at him and nodded.

"I don't buy it; what's up?" Lucas asked.

"Something about Haley's bothering me," he said. They all looked up at him.

"Well, you guys saw her yesterday, right?" he asked. They looked at him in confusion. "She was being nice," he reminded them. They nodded in understanding.

"What's so bad about that?" Peyton asked.

"Nothing. It's just that when I saw her today, she was different," he said.

"How do you mean?" Lucas asked.

"Well, she was distant. She talked to me and all, but her tone was indifferent, like she wanted to get away from me," he said. Lucas smiled.

"Um, Nathan, it's kind of understandable that Haley would be that way around you," Peyton said. He looked at her.

"You did leave her," Brooke added. He sighed.

"But she was being nice before. Like we had some sort of…" he started to say, but he couldn't find the right words to describe what he and Haley had right now.

"An understanding?" Peyton asked. Nathan shrugged.

"I don't know. Maybe it was her just being a nurse," he said.

"No," Peyton said, "If that were true, she would've been nice to you when she first saw you here, but as I recall, she wasn't." Nathan nodded. That was true.

"I can't figure her out. It bothers me," he said.

"Nathan, I think maybe you should just let it go," Peyton said.

"Why?" he asked.

"Because we know what you're trying to do," Lucas said.

"And that is?" he asked.

"You're trying to reconnect with Haley to ease your guilty conscience over leaving her," Brooke said. He shook his head.

"Yeah, you are, Nate. And, please, just don't," Lucas said. Nathan looked at him in confusion. "When you left Haley, she fell apart. It took her a long time to pick up the pieces and rebuild her life without you in it. It was hard for her to adjust to a life without you and it's not fair for you to do this to her especially since you're going to be leaving again once you're better," Lucas said.

"Did I really hurt her that much?" he asked. All four of them, including Sam, nodded.

(FLASHBACK)

Peyton Sawyer walked up to her friends' Nathan and Haley Scott's apartment. She was worried when they didn't buzz her in, so she used her key they had given her to get into the building. She knocked on the door. There was no answer. She knocked three more times and waited patiently. There was still no answer. Then she took out the key for their apartment and put into the lock. The lock made a clicking sound and Peyton turned the doorknob and opened the door. The apartment was dark, but she could hear something. "Nathan?" she called. She walked through the living room.

"Haley?" she called. Then she went past the kitchen and bathroom and to their bedroom. She knocked lightly on the door. Now she had found the sound. Someone was crying. She opened the door and was surprised to see Haley dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, sitting on hers and Nathan's bed. She had her knees up and her head was resting on them, but she was shaking so much that it looked like she was having convulsions. She walked into the room and looked around the room. It was strangely bare. She remembered there being a lot more things.

"Haley," she said. Haley didn't seem to notice that Peyton was there, let alone hear her call her name. Peyton had seen Haley upset before as she thought back to the time when Lucas had been in a car accident and Haley had been racked with guilt over the fight that they had that she couldn't face going to see him, but she had never seen Haley like this. She crawled onto the bed and sat beside Haley. "Haley, are you alright? What's wrong?" Peyton asked. Haley didn't answer. Peyton put her arm around her to try to comfort her somehow.

"He's gone," Haley choked out between sobs. Peyton was confused.

"Who?" she asked. A few minutes passed.

"Nathan," Haley said in a devastated whisper.

"What do you mean?" Peyton asked. She knew that Nathan and Haley were having a few problems and that they were fighting, but she didn't understand what Haley meant. She made it sound like she had lost Nathan.

"Everything's gone. His clothes, his CDs, his cologne, him- it's all… he's just gone," she said in misery.

"Are you sure?" she asked. Haley let out a sound that sounded like a laugh.

"Look around. His stuff is all gone. He left me," she said. Her voice shook over each word. It was almost as if she were still processing the full meaning of her words.

(END OF FLASHBACK)

Nathan felt his heart sink after Peyton finished telling him about how she had found Haley the morning he had left. "And it got worse after that, Nathan," Lucas said. They told him how Haley had just been getting over it when Dan had shown up to their apartment and handed her the notice that he had filed for divorce.

"When I got home, she was sitting on the couch crying, and she kept reading the papers over and over again," Brooke said.

"That had been the final nail in her coffin. It pushed her over the edge, Nathan," Lucas said. He looked at him in confusion.

"She tried to commit suicide, Nathan," Peyton explained. He felt like he had the wind knocked out of him and was gasping for air.

"I found her on the floor of the kitchen with about six bottles of pills open and some were scattered on the floor but she had ingested at least twenty," he said. Nathan looked at him in shock.

"How did she survive?" he asked.

"Thankfully, we found her before the pills could do any serious damage. We brought her to the hospital and they pumped her stomach," Peyton said. Nathan had trouble believing that Haley had tried to commit suicide, but he knew that they were telling him the truth. He nodded.

"I'll leave her alone," he said. Brooke looked at him.

"We're not saying that you need to leave her alone. If you guys are talking, then that's up to her. But, don't force her to have a conversation," Peyton said. Nathan nodded.

TWO HOURS LATER

"Haley, I need you to come with me," Noah Shane said. Haley looked at him in confusion. "I want you to be there when I deliver the news to Nathan," he said. Haley looked at him in anger.

"We've been over this. Nathan has a lot of people with him already. I don't need to be there for him," she said.

"His friends and parents aren't here right now. Now, I know that something happened between the two of you, but I can also see how much each of you still care about the other and I don't even know him that well. But I see the way he looks at you when you're around," he said.

"I don't…" Haley started.

"Look, if it were you, would you want to be all alone when you found out? Or would you want someone there with you, even if he was the only person there?" Noah asked. Haley sighed.

"I'd want him to be there," she said. They walked over to Nathan's bed. He was asleep.

"Mr. Scott," Noah said loudly. Nathan didn't budge. Haley smiled. She knew that wouldn't be enough to wake Nathan up. Dr. Shane tapped Nathan and called his name again. Nathan opened his eyes slowly and looked at him. His eyes slowly fell on her and she nodded at him. "We have the test results," he said. Nathan nodded in understanding. His bed moved to an upright position and Nathan looked as if he were sitting. He looked at them expectantly.

"Now, normally, this would be a doctor's job, but since you and Haley know each other, I think it would be better coming from her," he said. Haley looked at him in shock. "I'll give you some privacy," he said. Haley glared at him.

"What are you doing?" Haley demanded. Noah ignored her and pulled the curtains around and left. Haley was about to go after him when she remembered that Nathan was sitting there. She turned around and faced him. He looked worried. She came over and sat down beside his bed. She took a deep breath.

"Is the news really this bad?" he asked. Haley nodded.

"Your liver was damaged in the car accident," she said. He looked at her in confusion.

"It needs to be removed," she said.

"But a liver's a vital organ isn't it?" he asked. Haley nodded. "So if you remove it, I die, but if you don't, I die?" he asked. Haley shook her head.

"You could have a transplant, but… there are no livers that match your blood type in the donor bin," she said.

"And a family member can't donate a liver since there's only one," he said. Haley shook her head.

"The liver is pretty resilient. A family member can donate their liver without dying. What they do is cut the liver in half and in a few weeks, it will grow back to its normal size," Haley said. He nodded.

"Well, I've got a few family members, Haley. I don't understand what the big problem is," he said.

"It's more than likely that your body would reject the liver," she said. He looked at her.

"You've developed an infection, Nathan," she said. He sighed heavily.

"So, either I have the transplant and I could die or I don't have it and I will die," he said to himself.

"It's your decision," she said.

"There's no decision, Haley. I'm going to have the transplant," he said.

"I didn't think you would have a problem making the decision," she said.

"How likely is it that I could reject it?" he asked.

"I can't give you an exact percentage," she said.

"An estimate would do," he said.

"65, maybe 70," she replied.

"Thanks," he said. She looked at him questioningly.

"For telling me yourself. It's better to hear this coming from you than from the doctor," he said. Haley nodded.

"No problem," she said, starting to leave.

"I mean, it's pretty big of you, especially considering everything I put you through," he said. Haley looked at him.

"What are you talking about?" she asked.

"I know that I hurt you when I left. I never wanted to, but I know that I did. I thought I was doing what was best for us. I thought you deserved more than me and I didn't think you'd take it so hard," he said. Haley narrowed her eyes.

"Take it so hard?" she repeated, clearly not understanding what he meant. He looked at her.

"I know what you did after my dad came to see you," he said. Haley laughed.

"And what did I do?" she asked in amusement. She didn't think he knew.

"You tried to kill yourself," he said. Haley recoiled as if his words had burned her. "Look, Haley, I…" he said. Haley stood up and shook her head at him.

"We're not talking about this, Nathan," she said firmly.

"I think we should," he said.

"No. I'm not going to stand here and listen to another lecture. I've had plenty of them," she said.

"I'm not going to lecture you. I just want to talk about it… I want to try to understand," he said.

"Well, don't. I don't need your understanding or your sympathy," she said, getting up and leaving the room.


	5. Death Pays a Visit

**Death Pays a Visit** (Chapter 5)

THREE DAYS LATER

Haley walked into the hospital and smiled at one of the med students who said hello to her. She looked at the board and groaned. One of the other nurses followed her gaze and nodded. "They're killing us with this workload," Haley commented. She nodded.

"Gabrielle brought up a sick-out," she told her. Haley looked at her in surprise.

"A strike? Are you serious?" Haley asked, looking to Gabrielle. Gabrielle looked at all the med students who were now paying very close attention to their discussion. She motioned for Haley to follow her.

"Let's talk while we go check up on some of your patients," Gabrielle said. The patients that Haley had were all in curtain two. The nurses had long ago split up the curtain areas. Two or three nurses per curtain area and Haley was assigned to two, which coincidentally the same area that Nathan was so he automatically became one of her patients. The nurses didn't keep their own patients like the doctors did; they shared them, but since Nathan and Haley had been married, the other two nurses assigned to the same area usually made Haley help Nathan much to her dismay. But she knew they were trying to get them back together even though she had told them that they had gotten divorced more than a year ago.

"I'm only half-serious about the sick-out," she admitted.

"What does that mean?" Haley asked as she walked over to where a young girl was sleeping.

"It means that I want to teach the doctors a lesson," she said.

"How does threatening a sick-out teach them a lesson? It would make more sense if we did go on strike," Haley pointed out.

"Well, the truth is I don't want to go on strike. What if they fire us?" Gabrielle asked.

"They can't; we have a union and a contract," she replied.

"You sound as if you want to go on strike," Gabrielle said. Haley laughed.

"Believe me, that's the last thing I want. I want some of the doctors to learn a lesson, but I think we should at least write a letter to the Chief of Emergency Medicine before we take such a drastic measure," Haley commented.

"Typical reasonable Haley Scott," Gabrielle teased.

"There's nothing wrong with approaching them peacefully first. If we go on strike with no warning, they could and probably would choose not to try to negotiate with us," Haley said.

"Fine. I'll draft up a letter, but only if you'll sign it," Gabrielle said. Haley looked at her as if she were crazy.

"Of course I'll sign it," Haley said.

"By the way, your husband had his surgery yesterday. When I came in, I went to check on him. He called out for you," Gabrielle said. Gabrielle's shift started an hour earlier than Haley's did. Haley looked over at Nathan's bed. The curtains were pulled all the way around him so she couldn't see him.

"At least I'm pretty sure that it was you. He said 'Hales'," Gabrielle said. Haley felt a tug on her heart at the mention of the nickname that Nathan had stolen from Lucas. Only people from Tree Hill called her Hales.

"That's me," she said quietly.

"Did you two have a fight or something?" Gabrielle asked. Haley shook her head. She wasn't about to tell Gabrielle the truth. She didn't want to bring up the suicide attempt around the people she worked with. When it happened, she had been brought to this hospital. When she came back from sick leave, they tiptoed around her for months. She didn't want to go back to that.

"Well, maybe you should poke your head in and visit him. He seemed to be in pain," Gabrielle said.

"He just had major surgery. Of course he's in pain," Haley said.

"Not just that physically," Gabrielle commented.

"Gabi, I appreciate that you care enough to try to get me to spend time with him, but, like I told you before, we've been divorced for a while," Haley said. She rolled her eyes at her.

"Absence makes the heart grow fonder," she said simply and walked away. Haley looked over in Nathan's direction. She stood still for a minute. She was about to walk over when someone called out to her.

"Nurse?" Mathew asked. Haley took one last look at where Nathan was, and then walked toward Mathew.

TWO HOURS LATER

Haley brought Mathew back from X-ray and helped him get back in bed. "You were quite a trooper there, Matt," she said. He smiled proudly and yawned. "Are you tired?" she asked him as she put his IV back in. He shrugged.

"Can you stay for a few minutes?" he asked. Haley smiled and looked around. She grabbed a chair and sat down beside him.

"Sure. What's on your mind?" Haley asked. Mathew had been a patient at the hospital for at least two weeks now and Haley had grown fond of him. He was a cute kid who had been cursed with having an irresponsible parent who didn't watch his medications properly. And because of that, Mathew had been rushed to the ER and until Social Services could get to the bottom of his living situation, he had to stay.

"Are you and Nathan related?" he asked. Haley looked at him in shock.

"How do you know Nathan?" she asked.

"He's a basketball player for California State College. I watch a lot of basketball games with my uncle," Mathew explained.

"What makes you think he and I are related?" Haley asked.

"You have the same last name and I heard him talking about you with some of the people that came to visit him. Since I don't have a lot of visitors, he let me come over and spend time with some of the people who came to see them," he said.

"Well, we used to be married," she said.

"You got divorced?" he asked. Haley nodded. "My parents got divorced," he said.

"I'm sorry," Haley said. He shook his head.

"They weren't happy together. They only stayed together because of me, but I could tell that they were miserable," he said.

"And how are they now?" Haley asked.

"My mommy's remarried and even pregnant with my little brother right now," he said excitedly.

"And your dad?" Haley asked.

"He has a girlfriend and he's happy," Mathew said. Haley smiled. "Are you happy?" he asked. Haley looked at him in confusion.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"Well, when my parents got divorced, they got happier," he said. Haley shrugged. "I think Nathan wants you to go and visit him," Mathew said. Haley looked at him carefully. "I think you should go see him," he said.

"I will do that," she said, laughing at Mathew. She loved that he had so much confidence in himself to be able to say something like that. "We'll talk later, kiddo," she said.

Haley took a deep breath before she walked over to Nathan's bed. She gently pulled the curtain back and was shocked to see that he was alone. He looked like he was asleep. Haley started to turn around until he spoke. "Don't go," he said. She stopped moving immediately. Then, she turned around.

"How are you feeling?" she asked.

"Like hell," he replied flatly. She walked over to him. He looked over at the chair. Haley smirked and sat down. He moved his bed up and took her hand in his. Haley went rigid at his touch. "Look, I wanted to apologize to you," he said. Haley looked at him in confusion.

"For bringing it up," he continued. Haley nodded. "I wasn't trying to force you to have a conversation about it because I want to lecture you. I know that it's kind of crazy for me to say I want to understand it when I know that it was because of something I did," he said. Haley felt her eyes watering as it all came flooding back to her and the guilt in his voice.

"It wasn't just because of you," she admitted. He looked at her in surprise.

"Haley, you don't have to talk about this if you don't want to," he said. Haley sniffled and shook her head.

"No, it's ok. Who knows? It might actually help to talk about it," she said.

"What was it then?" he asked.

"It was everything. The whole situation was just a little overwhelming and all of that added with the fact that your father came to see me," she said.

"What do you mean?" he asked. Haley took a deep breath as she started to tell Nathan about Dan's visit to her apartment.

(FLASHBACK)

Haley put a few of her books down on the kitchen table and opened them up when the buzzer rang. Haley walked to the front door and pushed the intercom button. "Hello?" she asked. She was not up for visitors today. She had a ton of work to get done plus she was doing for work at the hospital in about two hours.

"It's your father-in-law," Dan Scott's harsh voice came through the speaker. Haley's brow wrinkled.

"What do you want?" she asked.

"Just to talk," he replied. A voice inside her head screamed at her not to trust Dan Scott. Nothing was ever just a discussion with him and she knew it, but she ignored it and out of curiosity, pressed the button that unlocked the door.

A few seconds later, there was a knock on the door. Haley walked over to open it. Dan was dressed in a black suit with a pin-striped tie around his neck. "Can I come in?" he asked. She moved out of the way and closed the door behind her. He observed the apartment with a critical eye. "Love what you kids have done with the place. It seems a little crowded but then again this is a three-bedroom apartment and there are five people living in it," he sad.

"Lucas is out with Peyton, so, if you came here to see him…" she started to say.

"Oh, I didn't. I came here to see you," he said. Haley looked at him in disbelief. "Oh, right. To talk," she said sarcastically.

"Well, I'll talk after you read this," he said. He handed her a big envelope.

"What is it?" she asked as she carefully opened the letter.

"I don't want to spoil the surprise," he said. She rolled her eyes and unfolded the piece of the paper. Once her eyes scanned over the words "notice of divorce" in big capital bolded letters, she dropped the paper. When she looked up at him.

"Is this some kind of a joke?" she asked. Dan shook his head as he laughed at her cruelly.

"You see, Haley, when Nathan and you first got married, I wracked my brains to figure out some way to end it. I researched the legal aspects and I tried to appeal to Nathan as his father, but nothing worked. So, two and a half years later, your marriage is in shambles and Nathan, being the sensible son I raised him to be, decides to break away before someone really gets hurt and he didn't even tell you. Sometimes I'm so proud of him. But do you want to know what the best part of it was?" he said. Haley didn't bother answering. She knew he was going to tell her anyways.

"I had absolutely nothing to do with it. Your marriage fell apart all on its own," he said. Haley wiped away the tears that were streaming down her face.

"I didn't think he would actually file for divorce," she admitted. Dan laughed.

"You didn't seriously think that you two would work things out did you? Come on, Haley. You're a smart girl. When a guy leaves you when you're not around and then has someone else call you to tell you that things are over, that's a pretty clear sign that he wants nothing to do with you," he said.

"Get out," she said.

"Well, that's very rude," he said. Haley shrugged. "This is the perfect revenge for me. You took my son away from me when you helped him emancipate himself and giving that notice is my way of taking him back," he said, leaving the apartment and slamming the door. It wasn't long before the tears started coming and Haley didn't even try to fight them. She walked over to the kitchen and cried while she put the clean dishes away in the cupboards. Then she got a headache while she was still crying and grabbed some fiorinal.

Fiorinal was a migraine medication that Haley had been prescribed when she started having migraines again after Nathan had left her. She felt an enormous amount of pain and just looking around the room reminded her of the fact that her husband had filed for divorce. As if it were an unconscious jerk, she put all of the pills into her hand and began swallowing them all, at least three or four, at a time. Then, she felt nothing.

(END OF FLASHBACK)

"I don't remember much about what happened after that. I know that I woke up in the hospital with a sore throat. They told me later that Lucas had found me," she said. There were tears streaming down her face as she was forced to face the reality that she was not over what had happened. Nathan shook his head in disbelief. She broke down.

"I'm sorry," he said, putting his hands on her shoulders and pulling her over to him. Haley didn't fight it. She let him put his arms around her and hold her close. She clung to him for support as she cried.

"I'm so sorry. My dad was wrong, Hales. I didn't not tell you because I didn't want anything to do with you. I didn't tell you because I was weak and I didn't know how to face you," he said, tightening his arms around her. Before either of them knew what was happening, Haley pulled back and smiled up at him through her tears. He bent his head down and hesitantly kissed her. Haley responded and kissed him back and put her right hand up to his face and ran her left one through his hair, tousling it a bit. His hands came to her face now and he was now cradling her face in between them. When the kiss ended, he was still holding her face. He brought her head closer to him and kissed her on the forehead and then pulled her entire body closer to him and hugged her tighter. A few minutes later, Haley came to her senses and moved away from him. She stood up and looked at him regretfully.

"What are we doing, Nathan?" she asked. He looked up at her in confusion. "We shouldn't have done that," she said reasonably.

"Well, I wanted to. I've wanted to do that for a while now, Hales. I've missed you," he admitted. New tears sprang to her eyes.

"And what do you think we should do? Pick up where we left off? Pretend as if nothing happened?" she asked. He looked up at her sadly.

"No," she said, shaking her head and taking a few more steps back. She turned on her heel and left.


	6. Denying What's in Your Heart

**Denying What's in Your Heart** (Chapter 6)

Lucas walked into his brother's hospital room a week later and sat down in the chair next to his bed. Nathan was standing up. He was putting on a sweatshirt over a t-shirt and he winced in pain. "Don't overwork yourself, Nate," Lucas said. Nathan scoffed.

"Lucas, I'm putting on a damn sweatshirt, not running a marathon," he said. Lucas started to laugh.

"Just showing concern for my little brother. You don't need to bite my head off," Lucas said, holding his hands up in surrender. "So, when do you want to leave for California?" he asked. Nathan looked around the room and gestured to the duffel bag on the bed. He put his jacket on.

"As soon as possible," he said. Lucas said. "Let's go," Nathan said. Lucas laughed.

"We're not going right now, Nathan," he said. Nathan looked at him in confusion. Then he studied his face and Lucas winked an eye at him.

"Oh, no," he said.

"Sorry," he said.

"Why is it that Brooke seems to want to throw a party every chance she gets?" Nathan asked. Lucas shrugged.

"Well, she said she it's a party to say goodbye to you and glad that you're ok, but she also said that she has some big news for us," he said. Nathan shook his head in annoyance.

"She does know that I have classes to get back to, right?" he asked. Lucas nodded.

"Relax. The party's tonight. You'll sleep over and then I'll drive you back first thing in the morning," Lucas said. Nathan sighed in annoyance.

"Fine. Where are we going then?" he asked.

"Well, to the apartment, of course," he said. Nathan nodded and grabbed one of his duffel bags but Lucas took the other one before he could reach it.

Lucas unlocked the front door and opened it. They walked into the apartment. It was huge. "Nice place," Nathan said as he walked in. Lucas smiled.

"Thanks. Peyton and I found it a few months ago and we all moved in," he said.

"I thought you guys were living together before then," Nathan said.

"We were, but that apartment was really small and overcrowded with five people living there. So, Peyton and I went looking for another apartment so we could move out and live together. Instead, we found this one and it was in our price range. It had three bedrooms, which was good for Hales, since she didn't have to sleep on a couch anymore. It worked out really well," Lucas said.

"Haley was sleeping on a couch?" Nathan asked. Lucas nodded. "I don't understand why she didn't just find another apartment or keep our old one," Nathan said.

"We didn't want her to live alone, so, we asked her to move in with us," Lucas said. A bedroom door opened and Peyton came into the hallway. She smiled when she saw Nathan.

"How's she doing?" Lucas asked. Peyton shook her head.

"Who?" Nathan asked.

"Haley's sick," Brooke replied, coming out of the same bedroom. "We were in there playing nurse," she continued. Peyton and Brooke looked each other and smiled. Then, they laughed.

"What's so funny?" Sam asked, coming from the kitchen.

"The irony of it. We were playing nurse to a nurse," Brooke said and started to laugh harder. Lucas rolled his eyes.

"But it's just her being sick, right? She didn't actually do anything to herself, did she?" Nathan asked. Peyton looked at him and shook her head.

"No, she's just sick, Nate. It does happen on occasion," Peyton replied.

"Not to Hales. She never gets sick," Nathan said.

"Well, she's been under the weather all week. Didn't you notice that she wasn't at the hospital?" Brooke asked.

"Well, I assumed she was avoiding me," he said.

"Why would she be doing that?" Peyton asked. Lucas was about to open his mouth but Nathan glared at him. Peyton looked at both of them. She studied Nathan carefully and then looked at Lucas. He avoided looking her in the eye and when he finally did, he looked away quickly.

"You two are hiding something. What happened?" Peyton said, folding her arms across her chest and switching her gaze from Lucas to Nathan and then back to Lucas again. Lucas bit his lip.

"Nathan and Haley kissed," he said.

"What? You two kissed?" Brooke exploded.

"It happens sometimes. We were married and it's not like I forced myself on her. She kissed me back," Nathan said defensively.

"No, no, no. That's not what she meant," Peyton said. Nathan looked at Brooke who was looking insulted.

"How could Haley not tell me and Peyton that the two of you kissed?" Brooke asked in outrage.

"She's not the type to kiss and tell," Nathan said immediately. Peyton and Brooke looked at each other and then laughed.

"You'd like to think that, wouldn't you?" Peyton asked. He looked at them doubtfully. Peyton raised an eyebrow and then winked. Nathan blushed in embarrassment and then looked away. They all broke out into laughter.

Then a door opened and Haley came out in her pyjamas. Nathan froze. She did not look good at all. She was very pale and there were dark circles around her eyes that made it seem like she hadn't slept much. The others walked to the living room. "I'm going to get something to drink. Do you guys want anything?" he asked.

"Four colas, Nate," Brooke called from the living room. Haley was already opening a can of soup and pouring it into a pan. She stirred the contents and put it on the stove and set the burner to number seven.

"So, I see you've been released from the hospital," Haley said. Her voice was scratchy. He nodded. "How are you feeling?" she asked, looking at him now.

"Fine. A little weakness when I lift my arms, but that's normal. Right?" he asked. Haley cracked a smile.

"Yeah, it's normal," she said.

"What about you?" he asked, looking her over carefully. Haley smirked and laughed.

"You mean this? It's nothing. Probably the flu," Haley replied. He grabbed the cokes and stopped at the doorway.

"I hope you feel better, Hales. It'd be a shame not to see you tonight," he said. Haley laughed.

"One: This is a party thrown by Brooke. Do you really think she'd let me use the flu as an excuse to avoid her party? Two: I live here. I'll be here anyways. I may poke my head out," she said, smirking. He nodded and left the room.

Four hours later, Nathan was sitting down on the couch in between Lucas and Sam. "All right, Brooke. How about you make this announcement now?" Peyton asked. Brooke looked over at Sam and smiled. Then she looked around and her face faltered.

"Haley, get out here now!" she exclaimed. A few seconds later, Haley appeared in a light purple, spaghetti-strapped dress that fell an inch above her knees looking really annoyed.

"You shrieked," she said. Brooke glared at her but then smiled.

"Sam and I have an announcement to make," she said. She reached out her hand and Sam took it and walked over to her. Brooke smiled hugely. "We're engaged," she announced. Peyton screamed in excitement and came over to hug Brooke. Brooke turned to Haley.

"I would hug you, but you don't want to get sick, do you?" she asked. Brooke nodded and just shook Haley's hand.

"How long have you been engaged?" Nathan asked.

"A few weeks," Sam replied.

"And you're just telling us now? Brooke Davis!" Peyton exclaimed. Brooke looked away for a second as if to stop her from getting glared at by Peyton but then burst out laughing. Lucas came over and hugged her.

"Congratulations, Cheery. I'm happy for you," he said and planted a friendly kiss on her cheek.

"Thanks, Broody," she replied. Sam walked over to Haley and stopped for a minute. Haley looked at him warningly.

"I think I'll risk it," he said and hugged her.

"Congratulations," Haley said when he pulled away from her.

"Thanks, Haley," he said and rejoined Brooke. Haley left and returned to her room.

"Well, Nathan, it looks like we can leave. Just let me get ready. Give me fifteen minutes," Lucas said. Nathan nodded and hugged Peyton and Brooke goodbye and shook Sam's hand.

"I'm going to go say goodbye to her," he said, looking at them carefully. They smiled up at him sympathetically and nodded, as if giving him the ok that it was a good idea.

Nathan knocked on the door lightly. "Come in," Haley said. He opened the door and closed it behind him. Haley was sitting down at her desk writing, still dressed in the same outfit. She looked over at him and smiled. "What's up?" she asked.

"I'm leaving in a few minutes," he announced. Haley tensed and put her pen down. She turned her chair around and looked up at him. She held his gaze for a few minutes. Then, she turned away and nodded. "Haley?" he said. She got up walked over to him, keeping her face down the entire time. Then she looked up at him again. There were tears streaming down her face. He put his hand to her cheek and wiped them away.

"I'm going to miss you," she said quietly. He nodded.

"I'll miss you too," he said. She walked away from him and kept her back to him. "I'd be willing to stay," he said.

"Why would you do that?" she asked. He could tell that she was crying. He was holding back tears of his own.

"To see if we could maybe work things out," he said. Haley turned around and smiled at him through her tears as she shook her head.

"No, Nathan. You have a life in California. I can't ask you to walk away from that," she said. He knew that she had a point. He didn't hate his life in California or anything; it just seemed empty now that he had seen her again.

"I feel like maybe there's a reason the accident happened. That it was meant to somehow bring us back together," he said. Haley walked over to him and they were only about two inches apart.

"In a way, it did," she said. She leaned up on her toes and kissed him softly. He put his arms around her and held her closer. She broke away and looked up at him. "We're talking again and I want to stay in touch. But right now, I think it's best if we finish school. Who knows? Maybe we'll see each other again some day," she said. He didn't want to, but he nodded in agreement. He walked towards the door and before he opened it, he looked at her.

"I love you," he said. Haley smiled.

"I love you too. I always will," she said.

"Always and forever," he said. She nodded slowly. Then she started to walk over to him, but she collapsed to the ground. "Haley!" he exclaimed. Nathan rushed over and kneeled beside her. He lifted her head up gently. Her eyes were closed and her body seemed lifeless, but he felt a faint pulse. He started CPR. "Call an ambulance!" he screamed. Then the paramedics came and took Haley on a stretcher. Nathan set foot into the ambulance.

"Sorry, sir. Only family members can ride along," the paramedic said.

"I'm her husband," he said without hesitation and got into the ambulance. He sat down and took Haley's hand in between his.


	7. Finding a Way Back

**Finding A Way Back **(Chapter 7)

A DAY LATER

Nathan sat by Haley's bed and held her hand softly. He knew it wasn't really his place to be by her side but with their recent confessions that they still loved each other, he couldn't imagine being anywhere else right then. It was amazing to him how nearly losing someone you love put things in perspective. Nathan had realized that he didn't want his life in California anymore. It wasn't even really his life. Sometimes he felt as if he were stuck on the inside looking out.

He was a spectator in his own life. He acted like a robot in California. Took the occasional class, kicked butt in basketball and spent a night with some nameless girl. His life ended the day he left Haley and started the minute she walked into his hospital room and uttered the sentence, "You've got to be kidding me" in such disdain that it made him fall in love with her all over again.

If, by some miracle, Haley woke from her coma, he would not let her leave the hospital until she agreed to take him back. He would even go so far as to buy a tent and camp out in the hallway. But the doctors didn't know what was wrong with her. When she had first been wheeled in, they had assumed that she had tried to kill herself again. Nathan had wondered the same thing until he remembered that she'd actually been sick. So the Dr. Shane had ordered a few tests and nurses came and went. Nathan was the one constant person in the room and he intended to keep it that way.

A few minutes later, the doctor walked in and looked a little upset. Right away Nathan could tell that the news was bad. Noah Shane walked over to him slowly and looked at Haley and then Nathan. "Just tell me," he said. Noah nodded.

"Haley has a pulmonary embolus which is a block in the arteries of the lung. In this case, it was caused by a blood clot in an artery. It's fairly common and I will warn you that it can be fatal, but in most cases it's treatable," he said.

"How?" Nathan asked.

"Thrombolytic therapy using something called TPA. Then there's Anticoagulation therapy with is basically using medications like IV heparin and oral warfarin. They're used for preventing clots. There's also oxygen therapy which we'll do until we're sure that the injury to the lungs has been resolved," he said.

"Will she live?" Nathan asked.

"Yes," Dr. Shane replied. Nathan smiled.

"Thank you," he said.

"We care about her too. Haley's like part of the family here," he said. Nathan nodded.

Haley slowly opened her eyes a week later. She looked over to her left and wondered what Nathan was doing there. Wait a minute, she thought to herself. Where am I? She wondered. Then she recognized the hospital and realized that she was a patient. She tapped Nathan on the shoulder ignoring the throbbing pain in her hand. He woke immediately and looked around and then saw her. "Oh, thank God," he said, smiling. He grabbed her hand and held it to his forehead. "I was beginning to think you were going to take your sweet time," he said, laughing.

"What happened? Why are you here?" she asked.

"You had a pulmonary embolus," he explained. Haley looked at him in disbelief. But she knew he was telling the truth. Otherwise, where else had he learned that name?

"Why are you here?" she asked again. He chuckled.

"Why do you think?" he asked.

"Nathan, no riddles. Just tell me," she said.

"I stayed with you," he said.

"What about classes and basketball?" she demanded.

"You've been in a coma for a while, Hales. And it's given me a lot of time to think," he said.

"Oh, boy. What did you do?" she asked, looking at him.

"I left California State and transferred to Raleigh College," he replied.

"You what!" Haley exclaimed.

"I moved back to North Carolina," he repeated.

"But your life in California…" she started to say.

"Was not a life. Or at least, it isn't the life I want or the one I planned on having," he said.

"And what life do you want?" Haley asked.

"I want a life with you," he said simply. Haley froze and looked at him in disbelief.

"Nathan," she started to say, but he covered her mouth with his hand.

"If you're going to try to convince me to go back to California, don't bother. I've made up my mind," he said.

"Why on earth would you do something like this?" she asked.

"It's pretty simple when you think about it," he said. She looked at him. "I want you back. Life without you was miserable and now that I've found you again, I can't go back to that. So the question is: Do you want me back?" he asked. Haley was stunned.


	8. Will Love Win Out in the End

**Will Love Win Out in the End? **(Chapter 8)

Nathan looked at her nervously as Haley opened her mouth to speak but then closed it. His heart dropped. "I care about you. I really do," she said.

"It's a simple question, Haley. Do you want me back? Yes or no?" he said.

"It is not that simple and you know it, Nathan," she snapped.

"Is it because you don't love me?" he asked.

"No, it's not. Loving you has never been the point because you know I do," she said.

"Then, what's the big deal?" he asked.

"You left me once, Nathan," she reminded him.

"That was a mistake," he said defensively. Haley scoffed.

"Yeah, a mistake that almost destroyed me. If I take you back, how do I know that you won't get scared again? I can't lose you a second time, Nathan. I won't survive it," she said. Nathan tightened his grasp around her hand.

"I'm here, Hales, and I'm not going anywhere," he said.

"You don't know that," she said.

"Yes, I do, Hales. I've lived without you before. It was the worst time in my life," he said.

"It wasn't so pleasant for me, either," she said.

"So, then why won't you give us another chance?" he asked.

"Because I'm scared," she said.

He stood up and sat down on her bed. He leaned down and kissed her deeply. He put his hands down on the bed to support himself as he leaned into her and continued to kiss her. Her arms came around his neck, pulling him closer to her. He slowly broke the kiss and moved his face a few centimeters away from her face. "I felt that and so did you," he said. She looked at him in confusion.

"That is love, Hales. It's love, its passion and it's need. And we're both feeling it. We love each other and we both need one another. Now, I know you're scared and you have every reason to be, but you can't deny what I felt from you. It's the same thing you felt from me and if we both still feel that way after so long, I think it's pretty obvious that we should be together," he said. Haley sighed and looked at him. She smiled at him and nodded. He looked at her hopefully.

"Does that mean that you agree?" he asked.

"Yes. I want you with me, Nathan," she said and laughed as he processed the information and slowly began to smile.

All of a sudden, the door swung open and Dan Scott came into the hospital room. Nathan had gone to get some thing to eat and Haley was drifting off to sleep. He sat down beside her and grabbed her hand and squeezed it hard. Haley opened her eyes and yelped in pain. "You tell my son that you changed your mind," he demanded. Haley looked at him in disbelief.

"You're hurting me, Mr. Scott," she said, trying to grab her hand away from him.

"You're lucky I don't kill you, Haley," he said. He released her hand. "You stole my son away from Deb and me once. Your marriage nearly destroyed his career. You're insane if you think I'm going to let you waltz back into his life after he's finally got his priorities in order," he said.

"If you want to come in here and spew threats, be my guest. It won't change the fact that Nathan despises you. I pushed Nathan in the right direction from freeing himself from you. You are responsible for him leaving, not me. And you know what? That's not what you're upset about. You're mad because you lost control over him," Haley said, holding her wrist in pain.

"You poisoned him against me. Once you let him down easy, he'll come back," Dan said.

"Keep dreaming," Haley said. Dan looked at her in surprise. He walked out and went to find Nathan. Nathan was walking back to Haley's room when he saw his father.

"There you are," he said.

"What do you want, Dad?" Nathan asked.

"Are you out of your mind, Nathan? Why on earth did you quit the team and transfer to Raleigh College? You're not going to be able to join their team in the middle of the season, Nathan," he said.

"Drop it, Dad," he said.

"When I got the call from the coach, I insisted that he was mistaken. Then, I called the school and they confirmed that you transferred last week," he said.

"I came here to be with Haley," Nathan said.

"Oh, come on, Nathan. If you're going to throw your life away, at least do it over something important," Dan said. Nathan glared at him.

"Haley is my wife," he reminded him.

"She's your ex-wife, Nathan," Dan said.

"The divorce is not final, Dad. I called my lawyer to get him to stop it," Nathan said.

"Haley is unstable, Nathan. She tried to kill herself. Are you sure you want to be tied to her?" Dan asked.

"Haley only tried to hurt herself because I stabbed her in the back and you paid her a visit to twist the knife," Nathan said. "And, by the way, if you knew about that, why didn't you tell me?" he asked.

"I didn't want her to suck you back in," Dan said. "You know what? You're a monster," Nathan said, walking away and to Haley's bedside. He kissed her on the forehead and they started eating the food Lucas had brought.


	9. The Past Becomes the Future

**The Past Becomes the Future **(Epilogue)

Three months later…

"Oh, this is a major pain," Peyton said as she helped Lucas lug out a large dresser that belonged to Haley.

"I don't mind helping Haley move out," Lucas said. Peyton laughed and shook her head.

"That's not what I meant. I meant that we just moved into this place a few months ago. We were originally looking for a place for just the two of us and now in the same week, we're helping all three of our roommates move out and we're paying rent for a three-bedroom apartment when we only need one," Peyton said.

"Peyton Sawyer, give it a rest. Just think about it; now you have two extra rooms to do your artwork in instead of your bedroom," Brooke said, coming into Haley's room and grabbing a box. Lucas stopped moving the dresser.

"Oh, see. A lot of good things are coming out of this. Brooke and Sam are getting married in a few months and Haley and Nathan are back together. And I don't have to look at your weird drawings on the walls anymore," Lucas said, laughing. Lucas dodged the masking tape that Peyton whipped it at his head. Brooke chuckled at them.

"You two are so cute," she said, smirking. They both turned to her and glared.

"What the heck is this?" Haley asked, as she picked up some weird picture out of one of Nathan's boxes. They were sitting down, unpacking each other's belongings and telling stories behind what they found as well as catching up. Nathan smiled at it.

"Oh, that's something a little kid drew for me. I gave him an autographed picture and in return, he gave me that picture," Nathan said. Haley chuckled. Nathan began to pull out a few frames. He turned them over and realized they were certificates. One was in English, the other was in Health Sciences and the other was her framed test results that she passed to become an RN.

"What?" she asked, as she noticed him staring at some frames.

"You've accomplished quite a bit," he said. Haley came over and looked at the framed certificates.

"Well, I have a bigger accomplishment now," she said. He put the box down and pulled her closer to him.

"What's that?" he asked. Haley smiled and grabbed his left hand and brought it to hers. She entwined their fingers and then pointed to their wedding rings on their fingers.

"I got my husband back," she said.

"You'll never have to get me back again," he promised. She leaned in closer and kissed him. He exhaled deeply and folded his arms around her while continuing to kiss her.

The End


End file.
